I am not 100% certain when I started collecting beer cans, I was collecting even before I knew I was a collector. In the mid 1970’s I used to travel a lot for the animation studios where I worked, delivering films to Germany, Holland and other countries in Europe and I also travelled to the U.S.A. every summer for my own business. I can remember buying a few Tucher scenes cans every time I was at either Cologne or Frankfurt airport, a small souvenir of the trip. And the same in New York City, I’d drink a beer and if it was a nice looking can I’d keep it as a memento.

It was at a Phil Seuling comicbook show in New York that it was pointed out to me that I was a beer can collector. I was going straight from the show to the airport and had all my luggage with me. Whilst packing some comicbooks into my suitcase, Phil noticed some of the beer cans I’d picked up. “So, you’re a beer can collector, as well” he said. Up until that point I had never thought of myself as a can collector. The mid-seventies were the height of the beer can collecting craze in the USA, as many people collected the many cans issued to commemorate the Bicentennial in 1976. It seems that Phil had a small collection of cans and introduced me to another can collector who was also at the show. This person told me of the Beer Can Collectors of America, but it wasn’t until 1979 that I tracked them down and joined.

Then, in 1980, I found an advert in Exchange & Mart for a “can trade” in Birmingham organised by the British Beer Can Collectors Society. Unfortunately the advert appeared a week after the event! The BBCCS began life as the Wessex Beer Can Collectors Society in 1978, founded by brothers Martin & Richard White the club changed its name in January 1980 to reflect the going membership across Britain. I joined the BBCCS in April 1981 and immediately volunteered to help organise “Cannection ‘81” in London. One year later I had taken over the “Can Change News” section of the newsletter, layouts and paste-ups soon followed, and by the end of 1983 I was also editor. It was the beginning of the end!

At the end of 1985, the newsletter was re-named Beer Can News and lasted until issue 12. At that time so many new cans were being issued in the U.K. (some 120-160 can per issue, over 350 in the last issue) that it proved impossible to keep up with the workload. Martin White issued regular monthly up-dates until the end of 1994, but then gave up collecting new cans.

As well as being a magazine for can collectors, Beer Can News was also very popular with breweries, can companies & design studios. With this site I hope to duplicate the service offered by the magazine and expand on it. There are fewer new cans these days and so it should be easier to keep up with new issues and changes.

Collecting cans has been a fun and rewarding hobby, I’ve met many good friends from around the world and travelled to places I probably never would have gone to if it had not been for beer cans. In 1997 I visited 28 countries and acquired around 2000 new cans. 1999 has been a little less demanding only 18 counties and around 700 new cans.

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